March 3 meeting

President Eva Stimson commenced the meeting at 1:05 p.m. Joelle Anderson led the invocation by reading the poem “Early Spring,” by Rainer Maria Rilke. After the invocation, Eva led the Pledge of Allegiance and welcomed second-time visitor Jessica Holman (who plans to join the club). During the business portion of the meeting, the minutes from the previous meeting were approved as written. Treasurer Ada Middleton announced that she had invoices to distribute at the meeting. The dues are due to Toastmasters headquarters on April 1, but Ada asks to receive them by March 19 so she can mail them in on March 24.

Vice President Education Eric Darnell requested that members bring in their speech manuals during one of the next few meetings, so that either the current VP Education Eric or the past VP Education Perry Chang can sign the manuals for people’s completed speeches. Eric also gave a brief description of the Competent Leadership certificate, and encouraged interested members to complete the Leadership manual. Members working toward their Competent Leadership certificate will need to find their own evaluators for the 10 projects in the manual.

Eva reminded everyone that there will be a district Toastmaster’s conference in May in Lafayette, Indiana, and had conference fliers available. Eva also mentioned she had handouts of numerous speech ideas for anyone interested. Perry Chang noted that Linda Patton is changing positions within the Presbyterian Center, and so was not able to make it to the club meeting.

After the business meeting, Eva introduced Bethany Furkin as Toastmaster. Bethany asked the members of the evaluation team to explain their roles: Speech Evaluator #1—Eva Stimson; Speech Evaluator #2—Ada Middleton; Table Topics Master—Faith Aeilts; Timer—Eric Darnell; Ah Counter/Grammarian—Patricia Longfellow; Vote Counter—Debbie Belt.

Patricia Longfellow chose promote as the word of the day.

Bethany introduced Kay Chambers, who gave her Competent Communication Project #1 (Ice Breaker) speech entitled, “A Work in Progress.” Kay explained that she thinks of herself as “a work in progress,” and talked about facing her fears in life.

Bethany then introduced Perry Chang, who gave his Speaking to Inform Project #5 (The Abstract Concept) speech entitled, “Rationalization.” Perry explained sociological giant Max Weber’s thoughts on rationalization.

Faith Aeilts led Table Topics by asking questions associated with springtime phrases.

Bethany then called for reports from the evaluation team.

Speech Evaluator #1 Eva Stimson applauded Kay for her well-prepared speech, her ability to rely minimally on her notes, and the way her speech displayed her “strong writing skills.”

Speech Evaluator #2 Ada Middleton was impressed that Perry did not need notes during his speech, and found that he spoke clearly and used vocal variety.

Timer Eric Darnell reported the following times:

Kay Chambers’ speech 6:18
Perry Chang’s speech 7:49
Eva Stimson’s speech evaluation 1:30
Ada Middleton’s speech evaluation 1:31

Table Topics:
Debbie Belt 1:40
Becki Moody 1:51
Jessica Holman 1:25
Kay Chambers 1:34

Ah Counter/Grammarian Patricia Longfellow counted around 30 space fillers, and 9 uses of the word of the day.

Vote Counter Debbie Belt awarded Jessica Holman with the Table Topics victory.

Bethany Furkin made her final remarks as Toastmaster, and Eva Stimson adjourned the meeting at 1:56 p.m.

- Joelle Anderson